Panda (Classic) 1993 Fiat Panda Fizz "Pandino"

bluejohn125 · Aug 3, 2016

Back in the day car theives used to bend flimsy doors to break in to cars... could be that this has happenned to yours?

Maybe a body shop could have a go at it for you?

FDNY21 · Aug 3, 2016

bluejohn125 said:
Back in the day car theives used to bend flimsy doors to break in to cars... could be that this has happenned to yours?

Maybe a body shop could have a go at it for you?

It's never been mentioned, so I'm not sure... I'm not sure if it's genuinely bent, or if the door is not quite in the right place.

Perhaps that's what I'll have to do, but I don't know of a trusted body shop near me so I'll have to look into it. Hopefully it's not too hard to rectify and doesn't cost too much if I do have to go to a place

Was hoping to fix it myself if possible but I'm not too sure how to go about this yet!

kolza · Aug 3, 2016

Is that photo showing doors fully closed? Or just on first notch? Try to adjust the door lock pin at B pillar. Ring spanner 19mm iirc and you're sorted.

FDNY21 · Aug 3, 2016

kolza said:
Is that photo showing doors fully closed? Or just on first notch? Try to adjust the door lock pin at B pillar. Ring spanner 19mm iirc. If the freme was bent, you can redo that by yourself.

That's all the way... does seem odd. I'll have to try that, but the rest of the door lines up, so maybe it's just the top that's bent, or maybe the whole door is slightly off. If it's off then maybe the pin will help, but if it's bent, I'm not sure how I'd go about doing it...

FDNY21 · Aug 3, 2016

kolza said:
Is that photo showing doors fully closed? Or just on first notch? Try to adjust the door lock pin at B pillar. Ring spanner 19mm iirc and you're sorted.

Woops, forgot to mention. I have 1 key for all doors and boot, and a separate key for the petrol cap.

kolza · Aug 3, 2016

FDNY21 said:
but the rest of the door lines up, so maybe it's just the top that's bent, or maybe the whole door is slightly off. If it's off then maybe the pin will help, but if it's bent, I'm not sure how I'd go about doing it...

1. Go for short ride,
2. Have a wood piece and old coat with you.
3. Find a suitable parking post or other object not higher that lower window edge.
4. Reverse in next to the post/ object with open doors.
5. Prise the doors against post, used wood piece between.
6. lower the glasss fully down.
7. Gently pull or push the frame, use few places rather than just one.

FDNY21 · Aug 3, 2016

kolza said:
1. Go for short ride,
2. Have a wood piece and old coat with you.
3. Find a suitable parking post or other object not higher that lower window edge.
4. Reverse in next to the post/ object with open doors.
5. Prise the doors against post, used wood piece between.
6. lower the glasss fully down.
7. Gently pull or push the frame, use few places rather than just one.

That's an interesting one, will have to try it if it's a bent door. Hopefully the glass still fits in if I do that eh

Only problem I have with it is part 1. I can't go for a short ride because I don't have tax/insurance, waiting on the V5 and was going to SORN it as I'm going away for a week soon... but I'll keep it in mind for when I can do it. Or, I'll have to improvise. We'll see what happens

Cheers kolza!

FDNY21 · Aug 3, 2016

kolza said:
1. Go for short ride,
2. Have a wood piece and old coat with you.
3. Find a suitable parking post or other object not higher that lower window edge.
4. Reverse in next to the post/ object with open doors.
5. Prise the doors against post, used wood piece between.
6. lower the glasss fully down.
7. Gently pull or push the frame, use few places rather than just one.

Pretty sure it's bent as opposed to the lock, just from looking at it. We opened the door, put a couple of posts behind it with a pillow in between, and pulled/pushed the top half with the window down.

I think it worked slightly, but it's not perfect. The passenger door is flush with the bodywork, but the driver door is still sticking out a little bit. It decided to rain so we closed the door and saw that it was indeed dripping in slowly from the top there. Put a temporary seal in overnight, will try and bend it some more later on! Hopefully it works!

FDNY21 · Aug 4, 2016

The temporary seal has worked. ZERO water in the front (so far), so when I get around to it, I'll continue bending the door until it presses up firmly against that seal

I cleaned out the rear under the seats as it was still oily from before. Now it's dry, I'll be able to see if anything is getting in there after some rain.

In other news, the V5 has now come through, so the vehicle is going to be going SORN (only for a short while). With the V5 came another nice little package, in the form of this Panda 1000 badge... handy little 10% off code too, so I might buy a Fiat badge for the rear of the car! I think I'll leave the front one as is, but the ones on the back are knackered - may even treat it to a brand new Fire badge soon, too...

pandamaniac · Aug 4, 2016

Hasn't anyone told you that it is the 'RUST'ic charm of the Panda that people get attached to.

Replace everything with new and then what do you do at the weekend?

If the girlfriend or wife shouts at you to go shopping, you'll have no excuse as you will have no welding, cleaning, fettling or tinkering to do.

Keep it rusty and keep sane.

Dave

FDNY21 · Aug 4, 2016

pandamaniac said:
Hasn't anyone told you that it is the 'RUST'ic charm of the Panda that people get attached to.

Replace everything with new and then what do you do at the weekend?

If the girlfriend or wife shouts at you to go shopping, you'll have no excuse as you will have no welding, cleaning, fettling or tinkering to do.

Keep it rusty and keep sane.

Dave

Rust? I bought it without the rust, so I've already lost there I suppose. Though I'm sure it'll eventually grow its own, I do know what they're like

The only thing I'm actually replacing with "new" are the rear badges, didn't really say anything about anything else?

I mean, I've got plenty of things to do, and I'm definitely not replacing everything with new. I'm bending my driver door back so I don't end up swimming in the water my car let in, I've got all sorts of things I want to do which will be those weekend things to tell my girlfriend! Don't you worry... fitting rear badges, cleaning my ceiling, cleaning my lamp, the car, waxing, underseal, touching up the paint, t cutting, jet washing arches/underbody, maybe even a rev counter on the cards...

Enough excuses yet? It's a Panda, I'm sure I'll come up with more, don't you worry Dave

Owen

FDNY21 · Aug 5, 2016

Finally got around to swapping the door/window seals/trims. Got the longer fits on the outside and the shorter ones on the inside now, so we're all good until the ones outside go bad again

Gave the car its first "proper" clean today. Jet washed, shampooed and waxed, hand dried and polished all over, with some bumper shine and fabric cleaner to finish off. That ceiling is looking much better. Definitely going to need to get out that t cut for some scratches soon though, and need to get that touch up paint for all the countless paint chips

Can still see where the Fizz decals used to be up close, hopefully I can get some done up one day, but that's not the priority - yet

Oh, and also important - door has been bent towards the body now. It's not completely flush, but it now presses against the seal, so no more swimming pools when I get in my car after rain! I'm hoping it stays that way :worship:

Here she is, sitting pretty after the wash! Not sure what next, but the list is definitely endless... might have to get Fiat Forum stickers, eh

lukmek · Aug 5, 2016

Pretty red Pandino!
Well done
What did you use on the bumpers?

FDNY21 · Aug 5, 2016

lukmek said:
Pretty red Pandino!
Well done
What did you use on the bumpers?

Thanks luk!

The bumper shine I used on the bumpers if called "Triplewax Bumper Shine". We have some Triplewax products and they're not too bad. It wasn't too badly priced so picked it up to try it out and while it doesn't make a make it or break it difference, it is a nice little thing to have

blu73 · Aug 6, 2016

So out of interest what is it that you want to paint? Looks very nice as is and can't work out what you might be planning to paint

FDNY21 · Aug 6, 2016

Update as of today: water is not getting in from the front any more. Hallelujah. But, water is still getting under the seats at the back, not sure how. Put some more roll in there to see what direction it's coming from, hopefully I can pin point it... is there a usual spot where water seeps in at the back? :bang:

blu73 said:
So out of interest what is it that you want to paint? Looks very nice as is and can't work out what you might be planning to paint

Sorry if I didn't make it clear, but I just meant touch up paint for the little bits chipped off the door and across the body, and the bit which is down to the primer between the roof/boot (hard to get to bit). Got a couple of big scratches on the door too so might try that, but I don't know really. Any tips? It's probably a good thing to stop the metal being exposed to the elements too much, but at the same time it's not like I'm going for a full resto or anything

As you say, it does look very good as is, it's just the small bits you see close up!

FDNY21 · Aug 7, 2016

Still water getting in the back. Going to do some trial and error with lots of kitchen roll and some water to try and find the source... at least the front is dry!

I now have the kitten seal of approval. Little Panther tried to drive the car! Poor little thing, can't reach the pedals yet

blu73 · Aug 7, 2016

How about from behind the rear light clusters...?

I also have a black cat, although he's much bigger and fatter haha.

kolza · Aug 7, 2016

FDNY21 said:
Still water getting in the back.

Make sure the boot lid seal is in right place at the top edge, especially next to the lid hinges. Boot lid seal should have the joint at the bottom not top.
If your rear seat glass can be opened - this is likely ingress point. Remove the glass completely (pozi screw driver) clean any dirt from the seal, optionally swap them left to right and opposite.

FDNY21 · Aug 7, 2016

kolza said:
Make sure the boot lid seal is in right place at the top edge, especially next to the lid hinges. Boot lid seal should have the joint at the bottom not top.
If your rear seat glass can be opened - this is likely ingress point. Remove the glass completely (pozi screw driver) clean any dirt from the seal, optionally swap them left to right and opposite.

I'd imagine the boot seal would allow the water to drip onto the parcel shelf and into the main part of the boot if it were that? It doesn't seem obvious that it's the boot seal, have had a quick look around it, but the source doesn't look like it's from the rear, perhaps the sides...

If it is the sides, it could be the windows. The windows can and have been opened recently and there's some nice green stuff on those seals. Tried cleaning them up with the windows on but that didn't work out too well... may have to take what you say there and take off the glass and clean the dirt from it and maybe switch them too. Didn't look like water had dripped down from the sides though so it really is a bit of a baffling one

All the kitchen roll under should hopefully let us know what direction the water is coming in now, and I can try pouring some water over the rear windows and seeing if water comes in after. Now to see what we can do!

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